Season two going to require more complex CGI

Westeros.org has an excellent interview published with Game of Thrones VFX producer Lucy Ainsworth-Taylor of BlueBolt. She goes into detail about some of the work they did on season one and some of the challenges of doing CGI work for a TV show. But most interesting to me was her stating that BlueBolt will not be returning for season two and the reason why. Here is the quote:

Will BlueBolt be the lead VFX vendor in the second season? If so, has any preparatory work already started given that cameras are due to roll in late July?

Sadly not. As BlueBolt is a small new VFX house, tackling CG creatures with fur, plus CG fire and water would be too much of a stretch. Although we have all done this many times as individuals at previous companies, BlueBolt’s pipeline and development would struggle to do this in the short amount of time needed for the second series.

Winter Is Coming: CG creatures with fur, huh? Sounds like some direwolf action to me. And CG fire and water? Sounds like the Blackwater won’t be getting the Green Fork treatment. Sad to see BlueBolt go, as they did some great work on season one. The dragons looked phenomenal. But I’m really excited to see what VFX house they bring in now to tackle the increased CGI work for season two.

• Published on 06/24/2011 at 10:29 AM CDT
• Last updated on 10/03/2011 at 9:59 AM CDT